Practice to Qualifying Table
There is a tweak to the table this week as the season avg start and finish have been replaced by the momentum avg start and finish. This way you can see what they have averaged amongst the races that compare with this race in terms of aero package.
Final Practice for Bojangles Southern 500
Darlington Raceway
Friday, August 30 4:05 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
Temps in the mid-90s with a slight breeze
Penalized Drivers
No drivers were penalized in this session
Top-20 Speeds (Single Lap)
Best Lap Averages
Items of Note
- A lot of the drivers will make very long runs in this practice to figure out how the tires will wear throughout a run as this track eats tires very quickly.
- Kurt Busch ran in qualifying trim in the first practice and now he will run two different setups in this session over two 30-lap runs on each.
- Aric Almirola got into the wall because of a wiggle coming off the turn and caved in the right rear of the car with 42 minutes left in the session.
- Almirola is going to a backup car.
- Joey Logano is most concerned with getting back to top-five performances heading back to the playoffs as he feels they have been just a bit off over the last month.
- Kyle Larson says he was close to hitting the wall at one point but didn’t make contact.
- A few drivers are taking different lines through the corners and the rest of the drivers have noticed and wanted the telemetry data on what exactly they did.
- There is a lot of talk about tires this session as everyone wants to know just how much the tires will fall off over the course of longer runs.
- Kyle Larson had a left front tire go flat about 22 minutes into practice in the middle of a run and it corded (meaning it was worn down to the cord in the tires).
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a similar issue with his left front tire at nearly the same time.
- Martin Truex Jr. kissed the wall coming off Turn 4 and came to the garage to get it checked out but there’s not significant damage.
- David Ragan got loose off of Turn 4 and took it to the garage for adjustments.
- Chase Elliott has some concerns about getting too tight in Turns 3 & 4 later in the runs.
- Ryan Preece did a mock qualifying run with 5 and a half minutes left in the session.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is atop the board without running a mock qualifying run.
- Kyle Larson said his car just became tight after several laps and his car is tighter on the get go on scuffed tires compared to stickers.
Opening Practice for Bojangles Southern 500
Darlington Raceway
Friday, August 30 2:05 pm ET
50 minutes in length
Weather
90 degrees and sunny with a light breeze
Penalized Drivers
No drivers were penalized during this session.
Top-20 Speeds (Single Lap)
Best Lap Averages
Items of Note
- The speed in the track is around the top of the track but a lot of cars are driving the bottom groove early.
- They are driving the bottom groove to warm up to the track and not get a Darlington stripe on their cars early in the weekend.
- Alex Bowman say he’s free in the center of the corner of Turns 3 & 4 but tight in the center in Turns 1 & 2.
- Denny Hamlin said he’s having trouble staying wide open through Turn 2 because he doesn’t know where the car is going to go.
- Kyle Larson has led 408 laps the last two races at Darlington but right now he feels his car’s nose is hitting the track a bit too much.
- Alex Bowman is still having issues with the tight and loose in the corners with 30 minutes left in the session.
- Not many drivers have been doing long runs in practice to this point as only three drivers have five-consecutive lap runs.
- Numerous drivers opted to do pit road speed tests this session.
- Kurt Busch likes how the car is coming off the corner but he’s a bit loose getting into the corner.
- Jimmie Johnson wants his car trimmed out a bit more.
- There is a lot of chatter on the radio trying to figure out where other drivers are driving on the track in terms of lines and grooves.
- The top-10 speeds in single-lap runs were set on mock qualifying runs.
- Not a whole lot of craziness or racing broke out in this session as everyone was trying to save their car for qualifying and the race Sunday night.